Inquiry resources for early childhood teachers of science

Does your (or your child’s) early childhood program include science inquiry experiences? Here are a few resources to get started, or to expand on, your understanding of science inquiry. These resources are on my list because I have read them (some—not all, yet), or other works by the authors, or read the reviews on NSTA Recommends or another source. I’m sure there are others—use the comment feature below to add your list to this one. Thanks to Nick dePreter, teacher who I met at his session at a NSTA conference, for asking a question which inspired this list. Online community–another great resource!In print

Building Structures with Young Children (Young Scientist Series) byIngrid Chalufour and Karen Worth. 2004. St. Paul, MN: Redleaf Press.

Growing and Changing by Robert E. Rockwell, E. Sherwood, R. Williams, and D. Winnett. 2001. While Plains, NY: Dale Seymour Publications. Activities for students to make observations and collect data in about themselves and other organisms.

The Inquiry Matrix by Julie Grady. The Science Teacher, November 2010. Note that NSTA members can access all journals online.

Investigating Real Data in the Classroom: Expanding Children’s Understanding of Math and Science by Richard Lehrer and Leona Schauble, eds. 2002. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Education researchers and classroom teachers paired up to describe how children can collect and analyze data as they go about answering questions.

Science in Kindergarten by Ingrid Chalufour and Karen Worth, Reading #56 from the CD accompanying Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children from Birth through Age 8, Third Edition by Carol Copple and Sue Bredekamp, eds. 2009. Washington, D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Science Is Golden: A Problem-Solving Approach to Doing Science with Children by Ann Finkelstein. 2001. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press. For parents and teachers—how to guide children’s questions toward investigation, including gathering data.

The Teaching of Science in Primary Schools by Wynne Harlen and Anne Qualter, 2009. London, Great Britain: David Fulton Publishers.

National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), Teaching Young Children, Picturing Good Practice. You Can Count on Math Handout 2: Math-Related Children’s Books, Songs, and Finger Plays for Preschoolers

4 Responses to Inquiry resources for early childhood teachers of science

With the publication of the February 2011 Science and Children, we have another resource on teaching inquiry in science to add to the list, Lynn Rankin’s Guest Editorial: Pathways to Inquiry. She says that “we know that inquiry-based science can be a powerful approach to learning scientific concepts and keeping wonder and curiosity alive in the classroom.”